Ayrshire Scotland Business News is provided by the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire. We publicise our members, and celebrate and report the wealth and rich diversity of entrepreneurial and business excellence that abounds here in Ayrshire, south-west Scotland. For further information e-mail Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

The Elite Ayrshire Business Circle

Saturday, 22 March 2008

Glasgow Prestwick Airport staff celebrate St Patrick’s Day

WORKERS at Glasgow Prestwick Airport got into the spirit of St Patrick’s Day on Monday 17 March by dressing up in the hope of winning flights to the Emerald Isle.

More than 40 flights now leave the airport every week bound for six popular Irish destinations – Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Shannon, Derry are served by Ryanair and Donegal by Aer Arann.

Both airlines donated flight tickets as prizes for the best dressed personnel, and the winners were –

Andrea Rae : Information Desk : Cork

Carrie Paterson : Ticket Desk : Belfast

Ian Harding : Security : Donegal

Martha Harvey : Sercon (cleaners) : Shannon

Sharon Smith : SSP (Yates’s Bar) : Derry

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is located 32 miles south of Glasgow City Centre and celebrated its 70th birthday in 2005.

The airport currently handles approximately 2.5 million passengers per year and offers more than 30 scheduled services to European destinations, as well as charter flights to popular holiday spots. Glasgow Prestwick has excellent road and rail links to the rest of Scotland.

Friday, 21 March 2008

WINNIE SPIERS retired on Friday 14 March after spending the last 15 years serving customers in the terminal building at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

[Pictured above: Winnie (centre) with WH Smith assistant manager William Anderson and Martha Harvey from airport cleaning company Sercon. CLICK ON ANY IMAGE ON THIS PAGE TO VIEW / DOWNLOAD FULL-SIZE VERSION.]

Winnie was first employed by the airport newsagent and more recently by WH Smith who have one store landside and one in the departure lounge.

Winnie, who is 60 and from Prestwick, also previously worked for BAE Systems in Prestwick.

Staff from WH Smith, Glasgow Prestwick Airport and other on-site companies gathered on Friday 14 March to say cheerio to Winnie and present her with flowers. Her WH Smith colleagues also joined her for a meal at Elliots in Prestwick on Tuesday 18 March.

The meeting, the first public meeting Irvine Bay Regeneration Company has held since it was established just over one year ago, was attended by over 300 local residents, businesses, community groups and officials at the Gailes Hotel, Irvine.

The regeneration of Irvine Bay is set to bring new investment to five of North Ayrshire’s towns. Irvine Bay Regeneration Company is focused upon creating physical and economic improvements to the towns of Irvine, Kilwinning, Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston that will create new job opportunities, improve the quality of life and provide opportunities for future economic growth.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Scottish Government is committed to the continued regeneration of Irvine Bay. We are working closely with the regeneration company as they finalise the exciting plans for the area.

“We are determined to ensure that local people can take advantage of the opportunities created by the new investment in the area and we look forward to working with the regeneration company, local partners and the community as their vision for the area is turned into reality.”

As the regeneration of Irvine Bay gathers momentum, Irvine Bay Regeneration Company chief executive Patrick Wiggins (pictured above) said: “Our vision for Irvine Bay is to create places where people will thrive, business will flourish and communities will grow.”

At the meeting Speyroc Ltd was announced as the preferred developer to create prestigious modern office accommodation at Annickbank on the edge of Irvine (see artist's impression above).

Patrick Wiggins said: “This development will stimulate business and employment, creating a valuable asset for Irvine which will attract interest both from existing companies wishing to expand and from new companies wanting to set up in the area.

“Speyroc’s scheme was selected for its building design, layout and sustainability proposals. Speyroc Ltd has experience in developing similar types of office buildings elsewhere in and around Glasgow and will bring a wealth of experience to this development.”

Speyroc managing director Alexander Haig said: “Research has shown a shortage of smaller, new office units available for both sale and lease in the area. The space has therefore been designed to be flexible both in terms of the size of tenant and the fit out required.

“Our recent Torus office building in East Kilbride achieved BREEAM* Very Good status and we are committed to build and improve on that project at Annickbank.”

Over a number of years the development will deliver around 8,000 sq m of office space on this six acre site.

Only last week Irvine Bay Regeneration Company announced Urban Splash, one of the UK’s leading developers, as its preferred partner to deliver a £70 million development set to lead the regeneration of Irvine on the west coast of Scotland.

The development is on an 11 acre site at the harbourside of the former Scottish New Town. A new community is planned consisting of some 300 homes, many affordable for first-time buyers, shops, leisure facilities and commercial workspaces, expected to create some 100 construction jobs and on completion around 160 permanent and part-time jobs.

Urban Splash chairman Tom Bloxham addressed the meeting: “We think that by focusing on quality architecture, creating a strong sense of place and by working in partnership with Irvine Bay and North Ayrshire Council, we can deliver a mixed-use scheme that will help transform Irvine into a great place where people will want to live and work."

As regeneration plans for the town centres in the area are being developed, Patrick Wiggins urged local communities to become involved in the consultation process: “We want to make sure that, as much as possible, people can make their own contribution to the improvements planned in their neighbourhoods.

“Consultation with local residents, businesses and public agencies will continue over the coming months. Make sure you get involved to help shape the regeneration of your towns.”

The Irvine Bay Regeneration Company, one of six URCs set up in partnership with the Scottish Government, has an ambitious twelve-year plan to breathe new life into the Ayrshire coastal towns of Irvine, Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston and the abbey town of Kilwinning.

All five towns lie just 30 minutes drive from Glasgow, and fringe 14 miles of the stunning west coast of Scotland. All towns have railway stations and lie just 30 minutes from Glasgow and 15 minutes from Prestwick airports. Ardrossan is the ferry port to the island of Arran.

* The BREEAM standard seeks to minimise energy consumption and reduce waste in construction. This includes using materials supplied from renewable sources; using pre-fabrication to reduce on-site waste; specifying materials with a high recycled or re-used content; sourcing materials that are accredited from sustainable sources and which minimise the environmental impact of manufacturing; and, sourcing materials locally to reduce transport emissions.

Sunday, 16 March 2008

THE latest meeting of the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle took place at 8.30am on Friday 14 March 2008 in the board room of the Clydesdale Bank Financial Solutions Centre in Alloway Street, Ayr.

Guests at the meeting included John Scott, MSP for Ayr, South Ayrshire Council Provost Winifred Sloan and deputy leader Margaret Toner, Glasgow Prestwick Airport chief executive Mark Rodwell, and local newspaper Ayrshire Extra editor John Matthews.

Members and guests heard an expert and entertaining analysis by Andrew Sinclair (pictured above) of Sinclair Scott Chartered Accountants about the implications both for individuals and for businesses of Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s first Budget, which had been presented to Parliament two days earlier on Wednesday 12 March 2008.

Andrew’s presentation was followed by a comprehensive overview of likely future trends in interest rates, commodity prices and inflation given by Neil Wilson of the Clydesdale Bank’s Treasury Department.

Elite Ayrshire Business Circle managing director Murdoch MacDonald commented: “It was gratifying that once again so many members and our distinguished guests managed to find time to attend our latest meeting. I think this shows that key Ayrshire businesses are enthusiastic in pursuing our stated mission to celebrate entrepreneurial excellence in Ayrshire and to present a united shop window to the world.”

THE EDITORThe Editor of Ayrshire Scotland Business News is Murdoch MacDonald, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where his journalistic contemporaries included John Simpson, now World Affairs Editor with the BBC, and Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian. Murdoch MacDonald has been in the public relations industry and a freelance journalist and broadcaster for more than 35 years.He has handled the PR accounts of many top Scottish companies, including Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, John Menzies, Kwik-Fit and Barratt Homes.

He has hosted his own family finance programmes - "£s, Pence and Sense" on Radio Forth and "Moneywise" on Scottish Television.He now runs Ayrshire’s top PR consultancy Fame Publicity Services.

Wherever you are in the world, no other public relations consultancy, PR firm or publicity company can offer you a better or more cost-effective worldwide news distribution service, combined with search engine optimisation techniques that will drive customers and qualified sales leads to your company's website.

Murdoch MacDonald is also managing director of the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire.Telephone: 01292 281498E-mail: Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

Murdoch and his wife Lilian (pictured above) have written a book called "Phoenix in a Bottle", describing how they overcame alcoholism and are now, contrary to conventional wisdom, able to drink alcohol responsibly again. "Phoenix in a Bottle" is published by Melrose Books price £16.99 and is now available worldwide.Reviewing the book, eminent American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

And now "Phoenix in a Bottle" has been selected as a set text by a top American university.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald will now be required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted Phoenix in a Bottle because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in Phoenix in a Bottle.“I also recommend Phoenix in a Bottle to many of my patients as well.”

You can buy "Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald online now direct from Amazon UK (click on book cover image below).